Save The Date - March 30, 2023: Nate Gowdy: The Insurrection in Photos

 

Via Town Hall Seattle

February 18, 2023

Nate Gowdy – Town Hall Seattle

Nate Gowdy had previously photographed 30 Donald Trump rallies. He thought he was fully prepared for what should have been the grand finale, but the events that unfolded on January 6th, 2021, were more than anyone could have expected. 

As the event transformed from protest to outright insurrection, Gowdy never stopped photographing. The result is his first monograph, Insurrection — a comprehensive yet intimate account of the events of that fateful day. The 150-page book moves readers through the day in timestamped, chronological order, bringing them a firsthand account of not just the attack on the U.S. Capitol, but what it was like to be a journalist on the front lines.

Juxtaposed are scenes of domestic terrorists kneeling and praying, posing for group photos, eating hotdogs, rampaging against the Capitol’s sworn protectors, and defiling the Inauguration Day stand, historically reserved for the stately pomp and circumstance of our representative government. On assignment for Rolling Stone, Gowdy was deemed “fake news” and assaulted twice for having professional cameras.

Gowdy joins us in the Wyncote NW Forum to share more about that historic day in January.

Nate Gowdy captures the complexities of American politics with striking clarity. Since chronicling Washington state’s fight for marriage equality in 2012, he has traveled the US to photograph pivotal events, figures, and movements across the political divide. His images have been featured in Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, PBS NewsHour, Thom Hartmann, CNN, and TIME, where his Bernie Sanders portrait graced the cover in 2016. As a co-founder of The American Superhero Project and co-author of Our Students, Their Stories, a book celebrating Seattle Public Schools’ LGBTQIA+ students, families, and staff, Gowdy is committed to elevating underrepresented voices. He serves as the official photographer for Seattle Pride, and his documentary fine art is represented at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe.

Thursday, March 30, 2023, 7:30PM

The Wyncote NW Forum

1119 8th Ave (Entrance off Seneca St.)

Seattle, Washington 98101

Get tickets here

Save The Date: February 23, In Conversation Series With Ryan Vizzions

 Via River Cities Reader

February 9, 2023

Thursday, February 23, 6:30 p.m.

Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA

A lauded painter, a noted art therapist, and an award-winning photojournalist will share their histories and thoughts at the Figge Art Museum on February 23 when the Davenport venue hosts In Conversation: Zaiga Minka Thorson, Dana Keeton, & Ryan Vizzions, an informal and enriching conversation about how artists address personal trauma through their artistic practices.

Michigan native Thorson is a Black Hawk College Professor Emerita, having taught at the Moline institution since 1999. She holds a BFA in Painting from Western Michigan University and an MFA in Painting from Northern Illinois University, and is represented by Iowa Artisans Gallery in Iowa City. Having received numerous awards for her graphic design and artwork, which she exhibits both regionally and nationally, Thorson has served on the education committee for the Figge Art Museum, as well as on the Rock Island Preservation Commission and the Visual Arts Committee of Rock Island's Quad City Arts. She has stated that her reverence for nature is rooted in her Latvian heritage and growing up in Michigan, and her interests include research and travel to America's National Parks and UNESCO World Heritage sites, her points of interest particularly focused on sacred sites.

Based in Iowa City, Keeton is a registered, board-certified art therapist and a licensed mental health counselor whose trauma-informed psychotherapy work incorporates art therapy, EMDR, mindfulness, and breath work, as well as cognitive behavioral, client-centered, and strength-based approaches. She is also trained in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), a therapeutic technique that assists in reducing the intensity of emotions associated with disturbing life experiences; YogaCalm, an integrated wellness approach utilizing yoga movement, meditation and mindfulness; and a certified Victim Service Provider with the Iowa Organization for Victim Assistance.

Vizzions has been named Creative Loafing's 2014 "Best Fine Art Photographer" (readers choice) and 2015 "Best Cityscape Photographer" (critics pick); worked alongside international brands such as Adidas and artists such as Pharrell Williams; collaborated with local companies including #WeLoveATL, The Atlanta Opera, and Van Michael Salon; and covered many music festivals, among them Outkast's long awaited reunion series "Outkast ATLast." In hosting his own annual photo exhibition Wander Never Wonder, Vizzions connects local photographers and helps provide a platform for local artists to make money off of their craft. The artist and photojournalist is also deeply involved with the community of Atlanta, Georgia, often donating portions of his art sales to various local charities and foundations.

In Conversation: Zaiga Minka Thorson, Dana Keeton, & Ryan Vizzions will take place on February 23, the 6:30 p.m. program will be preceded by a 5 p.m. cash bar, and participation in the evening discussion is free. For more information, call (563)326-7804 and visit FiggeArtMuseum.org.

Photojournalist Nate Gowdy Releases Intense Images from the Jan 6 Riot

Via Peta Pixel

January 31, 2023

Nate Gowdy: 5:07:45 PM, January 6, 2021, US Capitol, Washington, DC

Two years on from the Jan. 6 riots, an attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, a photojournalist has released his photos from that fateful day.

For his new book Insurrection, Nate Gowdy tells PetaPixel that he was mistaken by some members of the mob as their “fellow patriot,” others assaulted him for being part of the “fake news.”

“Brave photojournalists had to endure hell to navigate that day better than I did,” Gowdy says.

“Many risked endless aggressions to document the battlefront and gore from up close. Not me. Lacking the necessary gear and armor for a combat zone, I captured the wider view. Instead of zooming in with my feet, I often took a step back.”

Gowdy says he was attacked by a group of Proud Boys in the morning and a second time in the afternoon after the perimeter barricades to the Capitol grounds were breached.

“A few insurgents mistook me as a fellow ‘patriot,’ offering water for my burning eyes, confiding in me, and even lending a hand,” he explains.

“The rest of them monitored me with suspicious glares. Because I wasn’t repping my press badge, they couldn’t be 100 percent sure I wasn’t on their team. If I could do it over, I’d cover my N95 with an American flag bandana.

“All afternoon, I worked discreetly, often facing the opposite direction as my lens was pointed, shooting with outstretched arms or from the hip. I religiously avoided eye contact, lest these people take notice of the fear in my eyes. It helped that my lens was wide enough that I didn’t have to point directly at someone in order to include them in my frames.”

Gowdy traveled to D.C. from Seattle to cover what was supposed to be a political rally for Rolling Stone magazine, no different from the many assignments he had been on previously.

But he soon realized that this would be much different and because of the holiday season, Gowdy didn’t have all of his usual gear and was forced to borrow some from a colleague.

“I struggled to adapt to my friend’s custom presets. For the life of me, I couldn’t get used to his ‘back-button AF,’ which separated AF activation from the shutter release,” explains Gowdy

“In no position to troubleshoot, I reset the camera, which made matters worse by somehow removing the AF function altogether! I can laugh at it now, but in my ten years as a photographer, I had never once used manual focus. I’m here to tell you that at a violent insurrection, it’s a difficult thing to learn.”

Virtually all of the photos were taken on Gowdy’s Lecia Q’s fixed 28mm lens and a flash that his friend had lent him.

3:19:18 PM, January 6, 2021, Washington, DC

“Locked between thousands of rioters at the Inauguration Day stand, I was immobile for long periods. The camera’s focal length forced me to focus on and prioritize the subjects and scenes right before me,” he adds.

The Pictures Almost Never Existed

After escaping without serious injury, Gowdy then had the utter devastation of his Leica Q, hard drives, laptop, and all of his pictures being stolen from Washington’s Union Station as he was traveling back to Seattle.

“It was one of the lowest points of my career, and I would’ve given anything to recover these photographs,” he says.

Luckily, one of his friends spotted the camera listed on an online marketplace and Gowdy messaged the seller who claimed to have “found” his backpack that contained all of his stuff. The crook then demanded $2,000.

“Very fortunately, the thief agreed to return to the scene of the crime and to make an exchange the following day at Union Station with a friend of mine,” explains Gowdy.

“Amtrak Police went above and beyond to work with my friend to coordinate a safe and successful sting operation. Everything was returned in time for me to photograph Biden’s inauguration day.”

The 150-page hardcover edition of Insurrection by Nate Gowdy is available via his website.

“If you’re curious to read the only available book of photojournalism about what it was like to be in the middle of the mob on January 6, I encourage you to pick it up,” he adds.

David Butow Photographs Star Ballroom Shooting Memorials and Resilience for CNN

 Via CNN

January 29, 2023

By Elizabeth Wolfe, CNN. Photographs by David Butow

After tragedy struck Monterey Park’s vibrant dance community, residents insist they will return to their beloved ballroom --click for full article.

People gather at the Monterey Park City Hall for a candlelight vigil honoring 11 victims of a mass shooting in the city on Lunar New Year's Eve.

The gates outside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio have become surrounded by a makeshift memorial.

The gates outside the Star Ballroom Dance Studio have become surrounded by a makeshift memorial.

Kevin Leung stands outside of the dance studio where he rented space for years to teach Kung Fu and traditional lion dancing. He knew two of those killed in the shooting.

Ashley Gilbertson Photographs in January 15, 2023 NY Times

 Via The New York Times

January 14, 2023

How Montana Took a Hard Right Turn Toward Christian Nationalism

What happened to a state known for its political independence?

Photographs by Ashley Gilbertson for The New York Times

“If you want to live here,” a chapter president of the Montana Federation of Republican Women said, “be a Christian.” 

Credit Ashley Gilbertson

A flag near Red Lodge, Montana

Credit Ashley Gilbertson

The party convention in Billings last summer. Montana was one of the most politically independent states, but Republicans have recently managed to secure an ironclad grip over state politics.

Credit. Ashley Gilbertson

A sign advertising the Republican Party near Red Lodge, a city in southern Montana. In 2021, the Legislature passed a bill banning transgender athletes on sports teams at public schools and universities, an increased tax credit benefiting private Christian schools and numerous anti-abortion laws.

Credit Ashley Gilbertson

Ashley Gilbertson is an Australian photographer and writer living in New York. His photograph from the Jan. 6 attack was part of the Times entry that was a finalist in the breaking-news-reporting category of the Pulitzer Prizes in 2022.

Gallery Photographer Nate Gowdy Interviewed on PBS New Hour for Anniversary of January 6 Insurrection

 

Via PBS News Hour

January 6, 2023

On Jan. 6, 2021, photographer Nate Gowdy was at the U.S. Capitol on assignment for Rolling Stone when what was billed as a pro-Trump rally escalated into an insurrection. He was on his way to take photos of the rally at the Ellipse when groups of people started walking toward the Capitol.

Hours later, Gowdy writes in his new book, he was “caught in a melee of war cries, adrenaline and suddenly surging bodies.”

After covering the mayhem outside the Capitol, Gowdy faced his own chaotic situation days later. His camera and computer with his Jan. 6 images were stolen from Washington’s Union Station.

“I would have sacrificed an arm or a leg to get those photos back,” he said.

Beyond capturing a shocking chapter in American political history, the images were also meant to be the conclusion to a book he had been long working on.

As friends tried to console him and help him replace his equipment, one acquaintance had a lucky, one-in-a-million break, spotting his original gear for sale online, and eventually reuniting him with his images.

“Insurrection,” a recent collection of 124 of Gowdy’s photos, offers a timeline of the day’s events through vivid portraits of the Trump supporters who broke into the complex while Congress counted Electoral College votes to confirm President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

More than 950 people have been arrested for participating in the Capitol insurrection, the Justice Department reported Wednesday — two days ahead of the attack’s two-year anniversary. Hundreds of demonstrators and law enforcement officers were physically injured. The Capitol building sustained $1.5 million in damage. Eighteen journalists were assaulted and news equipment and cameras were damaged, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Nine deaths have been connected to the attack and its aftermath.

“Almost four years prior to Jan. 6, 2021, I stood in the audience at the Inauguration Day stand and stared in disbelief as [President-elect Trump] vowed to uphold the Constitution and to end the specter of societal ‘American carnage,’” Gowdy said. “Now I found myself in the space – one historically reserved for solemn and dignified assembly – as it was flooded with true American carnage.”

Gowdy has worked since 2011 as a photographer for various editorial and commercial clients. He has also produced exhibitions and projects, including “The American Superhero Project” – a series of patriotic portraits featuring people of all stripes – and “Our Students, Their Stories: Celebrating LGBTQ+ Students, Families, and Staff,” a project commissioned by Seattle Public Schools.

Trump rallies became a focus of Gowdy’s work in recent years, he says in an attempt to better understand the movement. “I wanted to make photographs that could help us bridge this divide potentially. And now I see that because, again, we see what we want to see, they [my images] only perpetuate the divide, certainly with the climate we’re in. That’s not what I set out to do, but that’s what it’s become.”

The PBS NewsHour spoke with Gowdy by phone and email over the last few weeks about his experience covering the Jan. 6 attack and what led to his new book.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Some of the photos featured in this story are graphic.

I’m curious how you came to be on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6. What led up to that?

Time magazine had reached out after I photographed a Bernie [Sanders] rally here in downtown Seattle being interrupted by Black Lives Matter demonstrators. … And that kind of gave me the confidence to get out there and do it. … I ended up getting the Bernie Sanders cover of Time magazine in June of 2016. … At the time, I’d only had a camera for four and a half years. So that was pretty cool.

The whole time I was out there traveling, self-funding these trips to primary states, sleeping in rental cars and doing what I had to do just to get the photos while this was happening. I thought the whole Trump-MAGA thing was a blip and I thought I had to catch it then and it would be over soon. And, you know, it didn’t end…

I saw Jan. 6 as Trump’s last stand. Excuse my language, but I knew it would be a stupid day. … I didn’t anticipate it being deadly and what it was.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Some of the photos featured in this story are graphic.

I’m curious how you came to be on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6. What led up to that?

Time magazine had reached out after I photographed a Bernie [Sanders] rally here in downtown Seattle being interrupted by Black Lives Matter demonstrators. … And that kind of gave me the confidence to get out there and do it. … I ended up getting the Bernie Sanders cover of Time magazine in June of 2016. … At the time, I’d only had a camera for four and a half years. So that was pretty cool.

The whole time I was out there traveling, self-funding these trips to primary states, sleeping in rental cars and doing what I had to do just to get the photos while this was happening. I thought the whole Trump-MAGA thing was a blip and I thought I had to catch it then and it would be over soon. And, you know, it didn’t end…

I saw Jan. 6 as Trump’s last stand. Excuse my language, but I knew it would be a stupid day. … I didn’t anticipate it being deadly and what it was.

Did you ever go inside the Capitol at any point during the day?

No, I did not. … Everyone on that terrace where the inauguration platform [was on the West Front of the Capitol] had their backs to us. And so there was obviously something going on behind them. And that’s where the battle for the tunnel was. And that’s why I got to a higher elevation to have a view of it. But I didn’t want to be in the middle of it.

I didn’t have any protective gear, whereas a lot of my colleagues out there that day were militarized – wearing gas masks, goggles, helmets, boots, kneepads, you name it. But that also worked to “other” them, … whereas, I was wearing a maroon hoodie and Carhartt beanie and, besides my N95 mask and cameras othering me, a lot of people who were suspicious of me couldn’t be 100 percent certain I wasn’t a fellow “patriot” for the cause.

You were able to kind of blend in a little bit.

Yeah, I think in ways that worked to my advantage. But, that said, I was still attacked twice that day for having cameras.

How have you been since that day? How has what you saw affected you? Are you doing okay?

A lot of people care about me and ask that question a lot. And my response is that I don’t feel like I have any lingering trauma from that day. A whole lot of people do. And I’m just fine.

The trauma I experienced regarding that day didn’t have to do with the danger and the chaos or the events of Jan. 6. They had to do with on my way back to Seattle – … my camera, my computer and my photos were stolen. I’d just witnessed and photographed the most historic thing I’ve been to. And suddenly that was all gone, but for the 25 medium-res JPEGs I delivered to Rolling Stone.

Tell me about that.

This book’s photos were almost lost. On Jan. 8 at Union Station, my backpack—in it, my camera, hard drives, and laptop—were stolen. If not for the sleuthing efforts of an acquaintance, this book would not exist. Just two days after the theft, he found my camera listed on an online marketplace. I messaged the seller that it was unmistakably my Leica Q and laptop. Silence.

So close yet so far from recovering my things and particularly these images, I boarded my flight home to Seattle. Upon landing, I learned that the seller wanted me to call them. Over the phone, they claimed that they had “found” my backpack. “Praise be to God,” they exclaimed, for putting us in a position to help each other—as they attempted to extort $2,000.

Very fortunately, they agreed to return to the scene of the crime for the exchange the following day at Union Station with my friend. Amtrak Police officers went above and beyond to work with him to arrange a safe and successful sting operation. For a multitude of reasons, I didn’t press charges. The detained individual was banned from Union Station, but didn’t spend the night in jail.

What gave you the idea for a book?

I’ve been a photographer since I got a camera in 2011, and I’ve always been kind of pretty obsessed with photo books. Photography is the only thing that I let myself collect and get materialistic about. And so I’ve always kind of done long-form documentary projects in anticipation of curating the archives into books. And I’ve just never had the means to do that. And so I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. …

What spurred me to do this one was my ex-partner’s parents. When I met them, they’re very Trumpian. I love talking politics, but I tried to redirect away from politics with them. But when I mentioned, you know, I was there at the Capitol on Jan. 6 at the insurrection, her father threw a fit and made a scene at the restaurant we were at – at just me calling it an insurrection. That’s when I got the idea that, “Wow, people need to see this. They need something they can hold in their hands and point to and say, ‘Yes, this happened. Look, here it is.’”

Related: A Seattle photographer’s firsthand account of the Jan. 6 chaos | Crosscut

Monroe Gallery of Photography 2022 in Review

 

David Butow: Brink

Gallery talk

Exhibition link

Ed Kashi: Abandoned Moments

Gallery talk

Exhibition link

The LIFE Photographers

Exhibition video

Exhibition link

Imagine A World Without Photojournalism

Gallery discussion with photojournalists Nina Berman and David Butow

Exhibition link

The Legacy of Bill Eppridge

Exhibition video

Exhibition link

The Tony Vaccaro Centennial Exhibition

Exhibition video

Exhibition link

We look forward to seeing you in 2023!

Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting 2022 A Year in Photos Includes Ed Kashi Photograph

 

Via Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

December 26, 2022

One of Gallery Photographer Ed Lashi's photographs from an assignment for TIME in Qatar, documenting the impact of heat stress on workers building the World Cup stadiums, has been chosen by the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting as one of the best photographs of the year.

A worker on a World Cup construction site in Lusail City, Qatar, tries to stay hydrated during extreme heat conditions. Thousands of migrant workers died in the decade leading up to the games/ Ed Kashi | VII/TIME

"I see the issue of heat stress and work to be one of the growing challenges we face in light of climate change. Focusing on Nepalese workers who had traveled to Qatar to work on the World Cup facilities was a timely and important way to amplify this issue to a global audience.

The value of visual reporting is only growing in impact, and to have this work appear during the World Cup couldn’t have been better timing to emphasize the need to address this pressing issue." - Ed Kashi

In 2022, the Pulitzer Center supported photojournalism that captured a wide array of the year’s most definitive moments. The work featured here exemplifies visual storytelling with depth and nuance. These images show the heartbreak of conflict, demands for justice, and the global fight for liberty and equality. They beckon viewers to witness the effects of deforestation and meet the communities living on the front lines of climate change.

Together, this collection of Pulitzer Center-supported work visualizes our mission to raise awareness of underreported global issues, sustain attention on urgent stories, and hold those in power to account. Our grants and fellowships for freelance and staff photojournalists aim to cultivate equal representation of voices in our work and the journalism we support.

Photojournalism is a powerful mechanism to provoke positive change. Universally understood, visual storytelling communicates across languages, distances, and lived experiences. It takes great care, intention, and determination to produce work with such impact, and we are thankful to our grantees and reporting partners for furthering the Pulitzer Center's mission.

Tony Vaccaro centennial exhibition on view at Monroe Gallery of Photography

 Via Art Daily

December 23, 2022

A glowing sunset portrait of the twin towers of the World Trade Center from 1979

SANTA FE, NM.- A new exhibitions celebrates the 100th birthday of acclaimed photographer Tony Vaccaro in Santa Fe. The show has been on view at Monroe Gallery in Santa Fe since November 25, 2022, and will end on January 29, 2023.

Vaccaro is known for his photographs of WWII, which were the subject of a 2016 HBO documentary, and his editorial work for Life, Look, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and countless other publications. The exhibitions coincide with Tony Vaccaro 100! on view at the Museum für Photographie in Braunschweig, Germany. In both locations, Tony Vaccaro: The Centennial Exhibition, juxtaposes the living legend’s powerful war images with the lyrical mid-century fashion, film, and pop culture photographs that came later.

On view are more than four dozen photographs dating from 1944-1979. From the battlefields of Europe to the rooftops of Manhattan, Vaccaro trained his inimitable lens with a sensitivity derived from early hardship as an orphan in Italy. After the war, he replaced the searing images of horror embedded in his memory, by focusing on the splendor of life and capturing the beauty of fashion and those who gave of themselves: artists, writers, movie stars, and cultural figures. From a photograph of a running soldier in 1944’s Battle of the Bulge to a shot of the actress Gwen Verdon swinging in a hammock against a New York skyline, the exhibition illustrates Vaccaro’s will to live against all odds and to advance the power of beauty. Several never-before-exhibited photographs are on view: a 1951 image of a bevy of beautiful women surrounding one in a pink dress on a balcony, a 1968 shot of Vaccaro holding up a test strip during a photo shoot, and a glowing sunset portrait of the twin towers of the World Trade Center from 1979.

As Vaccaro passed his 100th birthday on December 20, 2022, he has survived two bouts of Covid, and is one of the few people alive who can claim to have survived the Battle of Normandy and Covid. He attributes his longevity to “blind luck, red wine and determination.”

“To me, the greatest thing that you can do is challenge the world,” said Vaccaro. “And most of these challenges I win. That’s what keeps me going.”

Born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, on December 20, 1922, Michelantonio Celestino Onofrio Vaccaro spent the first years of his life in the village of Bonefro, Italy, after his family left America under threat from the Mafia. Both of his parents had died by the time he was eight years old, and he was raised by an uncaring aunt and a brutal uncle. His love of photography began in Bonefro where at age ten, he began taking pictures with a box camera. When World War II broke out, the American ambassador in Rome ordered Vaccaro to return to the States. He settled in with his sisters in New Rochelle, N.Y., where he joined his high school camera club. His teacher and mentor Bertram Lewis guided him through a year of concentrated apprenticeship.

A year later, at the age of 21, Vaccaro was drafted into the war. He was determined to photograph the war, and had his portable 35mm Argus C-3 with him from the start. By the spring of 1944 he was photographing war games in Wales. By June, now a combat infantryman in the 83rd Infantry Division, he was on a boat heading toward Omaha Beach, six days after the first landings at Normandy. For the next 272 days, Vaccaro fought and photographed on the front lines of the war. He entered Germany in December 1944, as a private in the Intelligence Platoon, and was tasked with going behind enemy lines at night. In the years after the war, he remained in Germany to photograph the rebuilding of the country for Stars and Stripes magazine.

Returning to the States in 1950, Vacarro started his career as a commercial photographer, eventually working for virtually every major publication: Flair, Life, Look, Harper’s Bazaar, Quick, Newsweek, Town and Country, Venture, and many more. Tony went on to become one the most sought after photographers of his day, photographing everyone from Enzo Ferrari and Sophia Loren to Pablo Picasso, Peggy Guggenheim and Frank Lloyd Wright. From 1970 to 1980 he taught photography at Cooper Union.

“Il Maestro,” as the Italian press calls him, has won numerous honors and awards. These include the Art Director’s Gold Medal (New York City, 1963), The World Press Photo Gold Medal (The Hague, 1969), The Legion of Honor (Paris, 1994), The Medal of Honor (Luxembourg, 2002), Das Verdienstkreuz (Berlin, 2004), and the Minerva d’Oro (Pescara, 2014).

Since retiring in 1982, Vaccaro’s work has been exhibited world-wide over 250 times and has been published or been the subject of ten books and two major films. In 2014, the Museo Foto Tony Vaccaro was inaugurated in Bonefro, Italy.

Vaccaro’s works are in numerous private and public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

In 2016, HBO Films premiered Under Fire: The Untold Story of Private First Class Tony Vaccaro. The film tells the story of how he survived the war, fighting the enemy while also documenting his experience at great risk, developing his photos in combat helmets at night and hanging the negatives from tree branches. The film also encompasses a wide range of contemporary issues regarding combat photography such as the ethical challenges of witnessing and recording conflict, the ways in which combat photography helps to define how wars are perceived by the public, and the sheer difficulty of staying alive while taking photos in a war zone. The film has led to a career renaissance for Vaccaro.

In 2018, Vaccaro’s photographs were featured in major one-person exhibitions in Venezia, Italy; Potsdam, Germany; London, England; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 2019, he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Mo. In 2021 the Kunsthalle Helsinki presented the exhibition Tony Vaccaro: Life Is Wonderful, a selection of 130 images from his career of nearly 80 year

TIME's Top 10 Photos of 2022 includes David Butow's Image of a makeshift memorial in downtown Uvalde

 Via TIME

December 22, 2022

On May 24, 19 students and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. The next day, as the nation attempted to understand yet another tragedy, photographer David Butow traveled from his home in Los Angeles to document the aftermath. “I spent most of my childhood in Texas,” says Butow. “I have affection for the place, but in recent years have watched with dismay how the state government has trumpeted an aggressive pro-gun attitude, and I felt that made this event particularly tragic and ironic.”

Residents and media gathered at a local park in close proximity to the school. Butow found himself there along with a group of children and parents visiting the makeshift memorials. “I looked around my camera’s viewfinder at all those faces going through various expressions of pain and grief,” he says. “It was very, very raw and painful to watch, but it was real and it was happening right in front of me so I stayed in place for a few minutes taking dozens of pictures.”

Butow says he has mixed feelings about recording these children’s emotions in such a direct way, but he believes it is critical for the public to see the impact of the shooting. “It makes me sad and angry that Uvalde’s children suffered because of the selfishness and failures of many adults in this country who should be looking after them.”

Full article with all 10 photographs

Gallery Photographer David Butow's Image from Uvalde Selected As One Of Time's Top Photos of 2022

 

Via TIME

Local children and their parents react to a makeshift memorial in downtown Uvalde, nearby Robb Elementary School, on May 26. David Butow—Redux

View David Butow's gallery prints here

CENTER: Grab a Hunk of Lightning Showing Saturday, Nov. 19

Dorothea Lange: Grab A Hunk of Lightning Teaser Trailer from Katahdin Productions on Vimeo.

 

Via CCA

November 16, 2022

Grab A Hunk of Lightning is narrated and directed by the legendary photographer Dorothea Lange’s granddaughter, award-winning filmmaker Dyanna Taylor, telling the compelling story of the passion, vision, and drive that made Lange one of the most important documentary photographers of the 20th century. On November 19 at 7:30pm, Dyanna Taylor joins us for an in-person Q&A in this special presentation of the film in conjunction with the 2022 CENTER Review Santa Fe Photo Symposium.


While Lange’s haunting image The Migrant Mother is one of the most recognized photographs in the world, few know the full range and depth of Lange’s work or the suffering and sensitivity that drew her to empathize with the people she photographed. Grab A Hunk of Lightning brings the wide scope of Lange’s work and sensibility to the screen.

Tickets here.

New Mexican photographer Gabriela Campos wins first place in Press Association Better Newspaper Contest

 'New Mexican' staffers capture Press Association's General Excellence honor

"Also winning first place was New Mexican photographer Gabriela Campos in the photo series competition."

Ed Kashi Photographs Featured in TIME Cover Story

 

November 3, 2022

"TIME published a story I worked on with Aryn Baker and Tom Laffay focused on the health impacts of heat stress on workers in an increasingly hotter planet.

Our journey started in Nepal, a country that sends many of its young men to toil in the Arab Gulf states. These young men are often forced to labor in extremely hot conditions, with temperatures of 120 degrees Fahrenheit coupled with 80% humidity, for long hours. This has led to an increase in the epidemic of Chronic Kidney Disease of Non-Traditional Causes (CKDnt), an illness I have documented through the past decade in seven countries along the global hot zones.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing photographs from this assignment, as our team followed the flow of laborers from countries like Nepal to Qatar. Many of these workers helped build the stadiums and other vital infrastructure for the upcoming World Cup, which begins on November 22 in Doha, Qatar. As our attentions turn to soccer and this momentous championship, we must also keep in mind the hard work of these migrant laborers who have sacrificed so much to make the next World Cup possible." -- Ed Kashi

Read the full story by TIME: https://bit.ly/3sVmdTJ

Resilience - stories of women inspiring change features Anna Boyiazis' "Finding Freedom in the Water"

 Via World Press Photo

October 21, 2022

The World Press Photo Foundation presents a selection of stories, awarded in the annual World Press Photo Contest from 2000 to 2021, that highlight the resilience and challenges of women, girls and communities around the world.

Gender equality and justice are fundamental human rights critical in supporting cohesive societies. Yet women around the world face deeply entrenched inequality and remain underrepresented in political and economic roles. Worldwide in 2021, women represented just 26.1% of some 35,500 parliament seats, only 22.6% of over 3,400 ministers, and 27% of all managerial positions. Violence against women prevails as a serious global health and protection issue. An estimated one in three women will experience physical or sexual abuse in her lifetime.

This joint exhibition conveys the commitment of the Netherlands to women’s rights and gender equality and justice. Multiple voices, documented by 17 photographers of 13 different nationalities, offer insights into issues including sexism, gender-based violence, reproductive rights, and access to equal opportunities. The selection of stories explores how women and gender issues have evolved in the 21st century and how photojournalism has developed in the ways of portraying them.

A young woman learns to float, in the Indian Ocean, off Nungwi, Zanzibar, on 24 November 2016. Credit/©: Anna Boyiazis.

Finding Freedom in the Water shares the story of students from the Kijini Primary School who learn to swim and perform rescues, in the Indian Ocean, off of Muyuni Beach, Zanzibar. Traditionally, girls in the Zanzibar Archipelago have been discouraged from learning how to swim, largely due to the absence of modest swimwear. The Panje Project teaches local women and girls swimming skills in an effort to reduce high rates of drowning.

This story awarded in the 2018 World Press Photo Contest can be considered an example of photojournalism with a solutions approach. Rather than focusing only on problems, solutions journalism reports on how people are trying to deal with difficult social issues and what we can learn from their efforts. The series looks at how teaching women a vital skill like swimming can be an important step towards emancipation and gender justice.

'Resilience: stories of women inspiring change’ is on display in:


Sao Paulo, Brazil - 14 October to 6 November
Athens, Greece - 28 October to 18 November
Brasilia, Brazil - 4 to 20 November
Belo Horizonte, Brazil - 9 to 26 November
Porto Alegre, Brazil - 16 November to 4 December

Istanbul, Turkey - 24 November to 15 December
Dhaka, Bangladesh - 25 November to 10 December
Skopje, Macedonia - 25 November to 11 December

Ankara, Turkey - 25 November to 15 December

The magazine that gave photography unprecedented power

 Via The Washington Post

October 20, 2022

© Ann and Graham Gund Gallery/Photograph copyright Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/Ann and Graham Gund Gallery

Photograph copyright Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

This fact floored me: Between the Great Depression and the Vietnam War, according to the organizers of “Life Magazine and the Power of Photography,” an exhibition at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, “the majority of photographs printed and consumed in the United States appeared on the pages of illustrated magazines.”

Today, with photographs published and consumed everywhere, it’s staggering to think that their dissemination was ever so concentrated.

Preeminent among illustrated magazines was Life. Published as a weekly news magazine between 1936 and 1972, Life magazine sold in the tens of millions. When you include pass-along readership, its pages regularly reached about one-quarter of America’s population. -- click to continue with full article

Life Magazine and the Power of Photography Through Jan. 16 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. mfa.org.

Related exhibit: The LIFE Photographers

‘Ed Kashi: Advocacy Journalism’ Pop-Up Exhibition on Display at Syracuse University Art Museum Oct. 25-30

Via Syracuse University

October 19, 2022

A special pop-up exhibition featuring the photography of renowned photojournalist, filmmaker, speaker, and educator Ed Kashi ’79 will be on view at the Syracuse University Art Museum Oct. 25-30. The exhibition will travel to the Louise and Bernard Palitz Gallery at Syracuse University Lubin House after its presentation at the museum, where it will be on view Dec. 5-April 27, 2023.

Featuring 15 photographs recently gifted to the museum by the artist, this exhibition considers Kashi’s practice of what he terms “advocacy journalism”. It highlights three projects, ranging in subjects from aging in America, to oil in the Niger Delta, to the global epidemic of chronic kidney disease. In each of these bodies of work, Kashi depicts individuals with great sensitivity and compassion. Through his creative framing and compelling method of visual storytelling, Kashi seeks to instill a sense of hope in the viewer.

Organized by museum interim chief curator Melissa Yuen, the special weeklong exhibition will be accompanied by programming, including a teaching workshop and a lunchtime lecture, both with the artist, in the pop-up exhibition space. All programs are free and open to the public. Advance registration is required for the teaching workshop and information is available on the museum website.

This exhibition and related programs are organized in conjunction with the Newhouse School’s 2022 Alexia Fall Workshop and is co-sponsored by the Center for Global Engagement, Newhouse School of Public Communications and Light Work, and supported in part by the Robert B. Menschel ’51, H’91 Photography Fund.

About the Artist

Ed Kashi is a renowned photojournalist, filmmaker, speaker and educator who has been making images and telling stories for 40 years. His restless creativity has continually placed him at the forefront of new approaches to visual storytelling. Dedicated to documenting the social and political issues that define our times, a sensitive eye and an intimate and compassionate relationship to his subjects are signatures of his intense and unsparing work. As a member of VII Photo Agency, Kashi has been recognized for his complex imagery and its compelling rendering of the human condition.

Kashi’s innovative approach to photography and filmmaking has produced a number of influential short films and earned recognition by the POYi Awards as 2015’s Multimedia Photographer of the Year. Kashi’s embrace of technology has led to creative social media projects for clients including National Geographic, The New Yorker and MSNBC. From implementing a unique approach to photography and filmmaking in his 2006 Iraqi Kurdistan Flipbook, to paradigm shifting coverage of Hurricane Sandy for TIME in 2012, Kashi continues to create compelling imagery and engage with the world in new ways.

Along with numerous awards from World Press Photo, POYi, CommArts and American Photography, Kashi’s images have been published and exhibited worldwide. His editorial assignments and personal projects have generated eleven books. In 2002, Kashi, in partnership with his wife, writer and filmmaker Julie Winokur, founded Talking Eyes Media. The nonprofit company has produced numerous award-winning short films, exhibits, books and multimedia pieces that explore significant social issues.

Ed Kashi is represented by Monroe Gallery, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For any print sales, please contact info@monroegallery.com.

Special Events

Teaching Workshop

Oct. 24, 2-4 p.m.

Co-taught by Ed Kashi and Kate Holohan, curator of education and academic outreach, this workshop will provide Syracuse University faculty and graduate students with key information and pedagogical tools that will help them to teach with Kashi’s work as well as with related objects in the Museum’s collection. Advance registration is required.

Lunchtime Lecture: Ed Kashi ’79

Oct. 25, 12:15-1 p.m.

Hear Kashi speak about his work. Space is limited to 25 people, first come, first served. 

Alumnus Ed Kashi ’79, a photographer with National Geographic and VII Agency, will deliver the keynote address for the 2022 Alexia Fall Workshop October 20

 Via Newhouse School at Syracuse University

October 13, 2022

Alumnus Ed Kashi ’79, a photographer with National Geographic and VII Agency, will deliver the keynote address for the 2022 Alexia Fall Workshop. 

Kashi is a renowned photojournalist who uses photography, filmmaking and social media to explore geopolitical and social issues that define our times. He is also a dedicated educator and mentor to photographers around the world. Kashi lectures on visual storytelling, human rights and the world of media.

In support of his newly published book, “Abandoned Moments: A Love Letter to Photography,” Kashi will also present a gallery of his interdisciplinary work along with a book signing, immediately preceding the lecture.

6 – 7 p.m. Gallery opening and book signing

7:15 – 8:15 p.m. Lecture

Co-sponsored by Nikon, Center for Global Engagement, Syracuse University Art Museum, Syracuse University Humanities Center, and Light Work.

Photo: Villagers celebrate the Ganapati Festival to honor the Lord Ganesh. Vadhav, India, 2007.

Ed Kashi is represented by Monroe Gallery, located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. For any print sales, please contact info@monroegallery.com.

Contact

Ken Harper

kharpe01@syr.edu

502.263.3380

New MFA exhibit explores world history through photography: "LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography,”

Via The Suffolk Journal

October 12, 2022

By Leo Woods

The Museum of Fine Arts opened its newest exhibit, “LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography,” on Oct. 9, allowing patrons to step back in time and experience some of the most pivotal moments of the 20th century captured on film. 

The exhibit, made in collaboration with Princeton University Art Museum, details the genesis of LIFE, which was published weekly from 1936-1972. Henry R. Luce, the founder of LIFE, took inspiration from European picture magazines to create a publication that would be both visually enticing and informative to the American people. His work was a success, as LIFE regularly reached 1 in 4 Americans during the years of its publication, according to the MFA.

As visitors walk through the exhibit, they see the process by which LIFE was developed and found its niche over time. With unique insight into the photography process and how stories were developed for the magazine, the exhibit seeks to examine how American views of the 20th century were shaped by magazines from the period. 

The works of over 30 photographers are featured in the exhibit, including Margaret Bourke-White, Robert Capa, Frank Dandrige and Gordon Parks. Each photographer’s signature style and vision are clear in their use of composition and perspective, from Bourke-White’s empowering portraits of female steelworkers in Indiana to Dandrige’s heartbreaking still at the bedside of Sarah Jean Collins, one of the victims of the 1963 bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala.

One of the most striking parts of the exhibit is the section titled “Documenting War,” which shows how photojournalists for LIFE were on the front lines of World War II and the Vietnam War, capturing historical images that allowed Americans to see the unfiltered reality of conflict overseas. Capa was one of only four photographers permitted to document the storming of Normandy, France, and the slightly shaky picture of soldiers running up the beach through the waves was published in LIFE at least eight times, according to the caption underneath the image.

While LIFE sought to bring nuance to stories with their photography, the magazine’s audience primarily consisted of white, middle-class Americans, and the photo essays reflected the attitudes of that group. When George Rodger and Bourke-White’s haunting photos of the recently liberated German concentration camps were published in 1945, LIFE refused to identify victims of the Holocaust as Jewish, reinforcing the anti-semitic sentiment in the United States at the time.

LIFE’s pieces also portrayed the U.S. as a “savior” of individuals like Japanese-Americans who were forced into internment camps in the aftermath of the bombing at Pearl Harbor. The magazine published letters to the editor criticizing the inaccurate depiction of the camps and the unfair treatment of the incarcerated residents, but the majority of reader responses “expressed vehemently xenophobic anti-Japanese sentiments,” according to a caption beside images of the camps.

In an effort to highlight the bias and discrepancies still present in journalism today, the MFA has included immersive works by contemporary artists Alfredo Jaar, Alexandra Bell and Julia Wachtel dispersed throughout the exhibit. 

Jaar’s featured pieces include work from his Rwanda Project, which documented the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Jaar called the project an “exercise in representation,” challenging the international community’s lack of response to the genocide. Over 1 million Rwandans belonging to the Tutsi ethnic group were killed by Hutu militias during a 100-day period, and no outside governments intervened, much less acknowledged that it was happening.

In an effort to contextualize the scale of the genocide, Jaar created “Eyes of Nduwa yezu,” a display of 1 million picture slides of a young boy, Nduwayezu, who witnessed his parents’ murder by Hutu militia members. The piece is striking, the eyes of the young boy seem to bore into the viewer, challenging them to feel the despair he does.

Bell’s “Counternarrative” series examines the implicit bias and systemic racism present in reporting today. Side-by-side images of the front page of the New York Times show Bell’s edits in red ink, pointing out how whiteness is seen as innocent in the eyes of the press, especially in the case of Michael Brown Jr., a Black Missouri teenager killed by a white police officer in 2017. 

The MFA commissioned Wachtel to create a multimedia piece to go alongside images of Japanese internment camps from the 1940s, and the stage-like composition of the work creates a commentary on the politicization of mass media, as well as LIFE’s erasure of the truth behind the camps. Oil paintings of Gen. Douglas MacArthur cover a blurred photo of internment camp residents, showing how the U.S.’s military power superseded the humanity of individuals solely based on their race.

“LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography” offers a revolutionary insight into American history and culture, as well as explores the incredible impact publications like LIFE had on a global scale. Timed-entry tickets are required to view the exhibit, which is on display until Jan. 16, 2023.

Related: THE LIFE PHOTOGRAPHERS: Celebrating Monroe Gallery’s 20th Anniversary in Santa Fe

Bill Eppridge’s Vibrant Portrait of America in the 1960s: A new exhibition charts the legacy of a photojournalist who chronicled the nation during a turbulent era.

 Via BLIND Magazine

October 10, 2022

“A journalist does not necessarily imply ‘artist’ but you are not going to make your point if you cannot make a picture that people will stop and explore,” said Bill Eppridge (1938 – 2013). As one of the most accomplished photojournalists of the 20th century, Eppridge chronicled the breaking stories of his day, helping to shape the way in which the nation navigated a tumultuous era. Whether documenting the Vietnam War, Woodstock, and the Civil Rights Movement or bearing witness to the tragic end to Senator Robert Kennedy’s presidential campaign, Eppridge brought a humanistic approach to reporting. (click for full article with photographs)

The Legacy of Bill Eppridge is on exhibit through November 20, 2022